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Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov (Fedor Rokotov) was born around 1735 (some say 1736) and died in 1809. He was a distinguished Russian painter, specialising in portraits.Rokotov was born into a family of peasant serfs, belonging to theRepnions. Much in his biography is obscure. He studied art in St Petersburg and after buying back his freedom in the late 1750s became established as a fashionable painter.In 1765, he was elected an Academician but did not work as a professor in the Academy long, because it interfered with his painting. He returned to Moscow 1765, where he lived for the rest of his life. He had many commissions there, becoming one of the best portrait painters of his time.Among his best-known portraits are those of Alexandra Struyskaya (1772) (sometimes called the Russian Mona Lisa) and admittedly the most celebrated piece of the 18th-century Russian painting; of Countess Elisabeth Santi (1785) and Lady in a Pink Dress (1770s) - see pic.Rokotov avoided painting formal portraits with lots of adornments and decorations. Instead he was one of the first Russian painters to advance the psychological portrait with attention to optical and atmospheric effects.